1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to paging transmission systems and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, it relates to an improved method of paging transmission which conveys text, coded matter and/or pictorial data with maximum message content for reception and reproduction by means of a paging-type receiver or equivalent functioning in combination with a personal computer. In essence, the method entails the initial development of the data as binary signal data with subsequent encoding as, for example, ASCII data which is then transmitted via a paging system and received for subsequent decoding and data output indication.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been many prior attempts at collection and compression of data for subsequent transmission to transmit maximum amounts of data in compressed or bandwidth reduced form, with subsequent reception at remote locations using receivers of limited size and data reproduction capabilities. This has been particularly evident from the various attempts at transmitting electrocardiogram (ECG) information for subsequent data analysis and diagnosis. One such approach to the storage and transmission of ECG data is disclosed in a paper entitled A New Data Compression Algorithm for Computerized ECG Signal by Walter H. Chang and C. D. Kao which appeared in IEEE/8th Annual Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pages 311-314, under copyright in 1986. This paper is specifically related to transmission of ECG data and the method of doing so utilizing signal compression using the Huffman Minimum Entropy Coding Method to attain increased data reduction ratio. This method succeeded in transmitting and retrieving ECG data of twelve leads per patient along with a 30 second rhythm strip record and other pertinent data; however, the system required a mass of storage medium and an inordinate amount of time to deal with such a large amount of data, even when reduced by data compression.
Current paging systems carry minimal information for reception and indication at remote positions; however, this information carrying capacity is extremely limited. Any attempt to transmit extensive data or text messages by the present day national paging system hook-ups, i.e., EMBARK (Motorola) or SKYTEL (MTEL), would be cost prohibitive without extensive alterations to the transmit/receive systems.